Make A Joyful Noise

This is the first year of "actual" music concerts in the Hinterlands. Mr. A started playing the trombone last August and also joined the choir in middle school. It's been interesting getting him to practice and to listen to that practice. He's gotten better, but it's still noise.

Last night was the last concert of the year for the 6th grade students at Mr. A's middle school. It was a combined choral/band concert. The first 45 minutes the choir students sang and then we sat for 15 minutes while they rearranged the stage for the band. Once that was complete, the band performed five songs and then the choir came back out and they performed together.

It was a nice way to end the music year, and I'm very glad that Mr. A decided to participate in both. Apparently, this year was the biggest year for the middle school when it comes to participation of 6th grade students. There were nearly 200 students at the concert last night, many of them playing both in the band and performing in the choir. It certainly sounded as though most of the students would be continuing on next year...Mr. A is continuing with band, but dropping choir.

It was also interesting to see some of these kids who Mr. A has grown up with. The girls are so tall, and most tower over the boys. Mr. A is head and shoulders taller than a good third of the other boys himself. It helped me realize that yes, my baby IS getting older, no matter how I want to deny that.

There was a time that I preferred to not listen to some of the noise Mr. A made and told him to play quieter...I wish I could go back and redo that. Because noise, whether it is a child having fun playing, or created as part of an end of the year concert is joyful. Sometimes you just have to remember that and not get caught up in the "noise" part of the deal.

Until later...